by AP

President won’t accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead to clarify when responsibility would be turned over to the Afghan government.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.

In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The war in Iraq, and Afghanistan, have always been a distraction from obama’s real agenda, domestic policy. While a pull out would be tragic for the the Afghan people, it is better to bring the troops home, than have them engaged in a half-hearted exercise.

This is what happens, when you send a boy, to do a man’s job. obama, you bring the ultimate shame to the office of Commander in Chief.

A Christmas Carol, only brings in two-thirds its projected opening box office revenues.

I don’t know if the disappointing results led to this brilliant (cough, cough) statement, by Carrey;

“I was thinking about it this morning, how this story ties into everything we’re going through, every construct we’ve built in American life is falling apart. Why? Because of personal greed and ambition. Capitalism without regulation can’t protect us against personal greed.. . .

I guess if I had Hollywood wealth, I could afford to be that idiotic as well. The truth is Jim, nobody is forcing you to take $20 million bucks a picture. Did you rise to that position by altruistic efforts, or was it your evil desire to be exceptional? Your statement fails to recognize, the construct that income, (greed) is tied to and individuals value creation, and there is certainly nothing wrong with creating value.

You cannot legislate the desire to be exceptional out of people, but you can change the rules. But be careful, because when you rid the world of capitalism, and it is replaced by central control, the only way to be exceptional is to gain power. Would you say that power is less of a magnet to greed, than money? I think not. Maybe you should go back to earning a working mans wage for a while, before you take a jab at those who have risked capital to put that man to work. Thus enabling him to by the $12.50 ticket to a medium that capitalism created.

Pelosi has a Christmas present for America. It will only cost the working family $3600 annually in regulatory costs, collected as higher costs of goods and services, and direct tax confiscation. This gift also carries the financial burden of $15,000+ a year, for the cheapest qualifying insurance program. All together, that is almost $19,000, taken out of your stockings each Christmas. Pelosi, your gift logic reminds me of another iconic holiday figure,

You’re a mean one, Mrs. Grinch…

Thank you, to my talented wife for the Pelosi-Grinch artwork, you’re the best sweety.

Experts abound concerning Stimulus jobs. Figures are being bandied about, such as the 650,000 to 1,000,000 jobs saved or created. Really! Were the figures from Bridgewater State College used in those numbers? Bridgewater received $77,181 in stimulus money, and claimed putting 160 people to work with that money. Those are amazing results, and should be studied to see how they accomplished such efficiency. After further review, a Bridgewater State College spokesman, admitted that the job creation was “almost nothing.” Almost nothing, what does that mean? Is that 3 jobs, 2 jobs, or 1 part-time job on alternate weeks?

Then there is the case of TeleTech Government Solutions, a Colorado company that claimed to have created 4,231 jobs for a stimulus project. Fantastic, that must be a major boost for the local economy. Well not so fast, due to the temporary nature of the jobs, only 635 jobs were created using the government’s job formulas. Sure it is something, but how much did it cost? A study that looked at $16 billion of the stimulus spending, showed that it cost $532,000 per job created. Ask any production manager, farmer, or office manager, how many people they could put to work, with half a million bucks.

If you would like to know the truth about jobs, ask a real expert. Ask a trucker, it they are hauling more freight, ask the waitress if tips are up, talk to a stock boy, are they stocking more steaks, or is it hot dogs that are selling well. The truth is, all you have to do is take a look around, you know the truth. You are going to pay, for decades, to create a few jobs. How many more jobs would the buying power of that same $532,000 create if it stayed in your pocket, instead of obama’s grab bag of special interest gifts.

As complex as the health care debate has become, health care itself is far more complex. Government’s solution, is to treat it as a pool of people, indeed an ocean size pool.

Huge numbers get thrown around. 50 million, 30 million and 25 million uninsured, does anyone really know? Then the cost projections, is it $900 million, $1.2 trillion, or as some claim actually $1.8 trillion. Past projections have taught us that, which ever guess you believe, it will certainly not cost less, and has the potential to cost, much more. Next we have the bills, the Senate bill was 1300 pages, the House bill, came in at nearly 2000 pages, with some 800 pages of amendments, With these gargantuan numbers being bandied about, we forget that this is about individuals, ordinary people like you, and me.

The sheer audacity, and gravitas, that a group, of even the foremost experts in insurance and health care, could centrally plan such a system, is pure folly, and nonsense. Unfortunately, we have 220 congressional members who, having consulted with a few experts, have decided, that they can legislate inefficiency out of the system.

My doubts in their abilities comes from the knowledge that they have already had their chance, and failed. Ask anyone who has been involved with VA hospitals, Indian Affairs, and Medicare. These are horribly wasteful systems, that fail to give the same level of care for dollars spent. We have also seen the failure of health care in Massachusetts, the model for obama care. If health care is so easily fixed, that 220 members of the house, can accomplish it with 2000 pages of legislation, why haven’t they fixed what they already control?

The biggest problem with health care is, in the fact, that it is not an ocean. It is not one giant pool of needs, rather, it is widely varying needs, as individual as the 305 million Americans, whom it serves. The better analogy to health care is that it is much more akin to thousands of streamlets, coming together into creeks, and forming into rivers, that then flow into an ocean. Government run health care is a 300 ton behemoth, cargo ship, that at best can get a large number of people moving in one direction. What if that direction is slightly off, it will take a massive amount of energy, to even change course. Forget navigating the rivers and streams, because everyone knows you don’t run the rapids in a 300 ton kayak.